Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown Review

Prince of Persia:

If there’s one game that almost anyone who had a computer in the 90s has played, it’s Prince of Persia . The game in which you went back and forth from one side to the other (and died all the time), has a legion of fans, and now (after 13 years without new games), it reaches the new generation with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown .

Prince of Persia  is one of the oldest franchises in the gaming world. The first game, which came out in 1989, was ported 20 different times, which makes it (by my count) the third most ported game in history, behind only Tetris and Pac Man , and was inspired by several sources, including the stories One Thousand and One Nights and the Indiana Jones and Robin Hood films.

Over the last more than three decades, it has gone through basically every type of device that can play a game, from computers to consoles, from cell phones to refrigerators, you can play at least one game from the series somewhere, and there was even game film, but, after a period of annual games coming out in the early 2000s, we’ve been without a new title since 2010’s Forgotten Sands.

Since 2001, Ubisoft has been responsible for the franchise, and in June 2023, during Summer Game Fest , we had the announcement that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was in development.

Story:

The story of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown begins when the kingdom of Persia is attacked and is on the brink of destruction. As Sargon, the member of a clan called The Immortals, you use your dual swords, Layla and Qays, to kill the invaders and win the battle. Afterwards, you are decorated by Queen Thomyris, and go to celebrate with the other Immortals, but in the midst of the celebrations of the hard-won Pyrrhic victory, Prince Ghassan is kidnapped by Anahita, Sargon’s teacher, and dragged to Mount Qaf, the location of an ancient city that is home to Simurgh, God of Time and Knowledge, who chooses who is worthy to rule Persia. And guess who has to go after rescuing the prince? That’s right, you, in command of Sargon.

Problem is, Simurgh has been missing for over 30 years, and time is running completely wrong on Mount now that a curse has taken over the place. You find people who entered yesterday and have already aged 30 years, and others who seem to be eternal inside. You need to face not only the enemies that inhabit the place but also, at times, you from another timeline or one of the other Immortals, all in search of finding and saving the Prince and reestablishing peace in the Kingdom of Persia.

Gameplay:

Following the pattern of the best games in the franchise, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is an old-fashioned Metroidvania . You have a gigantic map with areas that you can’t access until you get certain powers or go around in other ways to gain access.

Each of the game’s different biomes has its own characteristics that differentiate them from the others, but the differences are, for the most part, aesthetic. There are some obstacles specific to some biomes, but in general, it’s the Metroidvania standard : you move right, left, up and down, find secret paths, defeat enemies and bosses, gain new powers, return to previous places and so on. Here it goes. Speaking of which, one of the coolest features is that you don’t need to take screenshots or take notes outside of the game. There is a mechanic that allows you to mark points of interest within the map itself.

As you defeat enemies, and for each type of enemy, you will need a different strategy, you can’t just attack without thinking in this game, you will accumulate Athra , which is the spiritual power that allows you to make more powerful attacks. Additionally, Time Crystals drop from each defeated enemy, which is what you will primarily use to buy your improvements. There are other items that also serve as bargaining chips, especially for higher level improvements, but they all always need Time Crystals as well. If your Sargon is too weak for a boss in the game, just go back, defeat enemies (who, in most cases, are reborn as soon as you leave their area), until you have enough Crystals to buy the necessary improvement.